The privacy stack, integrated and active on first boot.
Kodachi is a purpose-hardened privacy and security operating system. VPN and Tor routing, DNS leak protection, AppArmor and Firejail sandboxing, full-disk and container encryption, a threat watchdog (health-control) and a three-tier emergency response including secure identity wipe, integrated and active by default. Free for personal use. Commercial and organizational use needs a license.
Keep Kodachi independent, fast, and available for people who take privacy seriously. Free for personal use, sustained by the people and organizations who rely on it: your license keeps the managed nodes online and the updates flowing.
Buy a license
Read this before you compare Kodachi to a VPN subscription
Kodachi is not a standalone VPN provider and should not be priced against one. A VPN is a single component inside it. Kodachi is a full operating system that combines:
Three plans. One hardened core in all of them.
Every tier runs the same hardened OS and the same signed binaries, and gets all updates for the life of the license. What changes is commercial rights, the operations cockpits, and how crowded your exit node is.
Kodachi ships five cockpits, easiest first. Free keeps the privacy core and the Simple and Direct startup screens; Vitals, SOC and ColonyOps are Premium features and stay open to everyone during the observe-only period.
TL;DR: the full plan details
- Every tier runs the same hardened OS and binaries and gets all updates during the license.
- Free keeps the privacy core, Circle and Lite Classic, the Simple and Direct startup screens, standard visual choices, one Default preference profile, current-session history, and the normal managed pool.
- Premium and Custom add the Vitals system monitor, the top-level SOC dashboard and the ColonyOps operations workspace, multiple preference profiles, persistent command history, extra visual packs, and paid managed-node access. Custom additionally enables custom-server operations and an isolated server reserved to your organization.
- Premium and Custom are annual licenses, 12 months of all updates, across versions. After expiry your last ISO keeps working; renew for continued updates and managed-node access.
- Your license funds continuous development, security updates, bug fixes, and new releases for everyone. Kodachi is not a personal help desk; deep documentation and guides are how you get productive fast, and paid reports get triaged first.
- Premium and Custom licenses are self-managed right in the dashboard (About, then Premium License). Enter a valid key once; the dashboard stores a signed, device-bound entitlement and automatically verifies it on later starts.
Free
- Full Kodachi features and updates
- Circle and Lite Classic dashboards
- Simple and Direct startup screens (Advanced launcher is Premium)
- Dark, Light, accessibility and performance choices
- One Default profile, current-session history
- Managed nodes on a shared pool (fair-use capped)
- Community support and full documentation
- Not for commercial use
- No Vitals, top-level SOC or ColonyOps dashboards
Premium
- Commercial usage rights
- Vitals system monitor
- ColonyOps operations workspace
- Top-level SOC dashboard
- Multiple preference profiles, persistent history
- Extra visual packs
- User web dashboard (online License Portal)
- Five exclusive web services for domain security, DNS privacy and IP intelligence
- Low-density VPS, fewer users per node
- Pick which nodes serve you, with live per-node load
- Priority issue triage
Custom
- Everything in Premium
- Single-tenant VPS assigned to your organization
- No other Kodachi customer traffic on your VPS
- Your choice of exit country and provider
- Split into one isolated VPS per 10 devices if you need groups separated
- Custom-server operations
- Kodachi Server DDoS Defense Toolkit once your Custom Server is provisioned
- Dedicated capacity, strongest plan-level isolation
- Priority issue triage
No plan carries a contractual SLA. Throughput depends on the infrastructure provider and route conditions, and neither paid tier guarantees latency or throughput. Every license, free or paid, funds the same continuous development for the whole community, and paid reports are triaged first on a best-effort basis. Kodachi does not run a one-to-one help desk.
Which one are you?
The plan is decided by two questions: are you being paid for the work, and does your exit traffic have to be yours alone.
Why people choose Kodachi
Kodachi is built for the reality of modern digital life, where your assets, wallets, identities, and personal data all live online and require serious protection. From first boot, it delivers a hardened environment with privacy, security, and operational tools already integrated and working together.
What Kodachi ships as a complete system is something you simply will not find prebuilt in another operating system, and that confidence comes from years of integration work. It does more than protect you: it teaches better habits, reveals how the stack works, and gives real control from day one.
All Kodachi editions (Binary Suite, Terminal, and Desktop) are completely free for personal, educational, and research use. Only commercial, professional, or organizational use requires a paid license. Free tier access policies may apply (fair-use controls).
You are protecting yourself
Personal, educational or research use. Your wallets, identities and personal data live online and you want a hardened environment rather than a bolt-on tool.
Someone pays you for this work
Consulting, journalism, research under contract, any professional or organizational use. You also want the Vitals monitor, the SOC dashboard, the ColonyOps workspace and a node with fewer people on it.
Your traffic cannot share a server
Five or more devices, and a requirement that no other Kodachi customer traffic touches your exit, in a country and with a provider you choose.
The seven questions that stop people
All answered from the current licensing terms, in the order they normally get asked.
What actually happens when my 12 months run out?
Do I have to create an account or hand over an email address?
I reinstall and change machines often. Am I going to lose my seat?
- Same active installation on the same PC: no release step needed.
- Reinstalling the same PC: release first, then activate again after reinstall.
- Moving to a different PC: release on the old device, then activate on the new one.
- After release, the same key can be activated again on this PC or another.
- Command line equivalents:
sudo online-auth license-status,sudo online-auth release-license,printf '%s\n' "YOUR-KEY" | sudo online-auth activate-license --stdin-key
Is this just a VPN with extra steps?
What do I actually get for the money, if there is no help desk?
Premium is currently unlocked for me. Why would I pay now?
How is a Custom plan different from just buying five Premium seats?
Commercial use starts at $99 per device per year.
Instant key delivery, no account, no email. Activate in the dashboard under About, then Premium License. Twelve months of all updates, including across major versions, and your last ISO keeps working after that.
The six rows that actually decide it
The full twenty row matrix is one click away, but these six are what people change their mind on.
| Feature / Plan | Free$0 | Premium$99/yr | Custom$600/yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial usage allowed | No | Yes | Yes |
| Backend type | Shared | Shared (low-density) | Exclusive (dedicated) |
| Exit nodes and IPs | 1 shared free node, single exit. No node selection. | All premium nodes, plus the free node if you want it. Pick which serve you in the License Portal. Default: a random premium node. | Your own isolated server and exit IPs, plus premium and free nodes if you want them. Default: your own dedicated node only. |
| Dashboard access | Circle + Lite Classic | Circle + Lite Classic + Vitals + SOC + ColonyOps | Circle + Lite Classic + Vitals + SOC + ColonyOps |
| Single-tenant VPS per organization (no other Kodachi customer traffic) | No | No | Yes |
| Priority issue triage | No | Yes | Yes |
| Full Kodachi features and updates | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OS-level hardened privacy and security stack | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| More than a VPN service | Full OS stack | Full OS stack | Full OS stack |
| Vitals system monitor | No | Yes | Yes |
| ColonyOps operations workspace | No | Yes | Yes |
| Top-level SOC dashboard | No | Yes | Yes |
| Startup modes | Simple + Direct. Advanced screen opens only from a saved preference | Simple + Advanced + Direct, Advanced launcher on demand | Simple + Advanced + Direct, Advanced launcher on demand |
| Preference profiles | One Default profile | Multiple profiles | Multiple profiles |
| Command and execution history | Current session | Persistent | Persistent |
| Visual choices | Standard Dark + Light | Standard + extra packs | Standard + extra packs |
| User web dashboard (online license portal) | No | Yes | Yes |
| Five exclusive web services for domain security, DNS privacy and IP intelligence | No | Included | Included |
| Kodachi Server DDoS Defense Toolkit | No | No | Included with active Custom Server |
| Performance advantage | Baseline | Lower occupancy, no speed guarantee | Dedicated capacity, no speed guarantee |
| SLA | No | No | No |
Paid plans pick which node serves them
Open the License Portal, paste your key, and the Your Nodes panel lists every node your license can reach with its country, exit IP, live load, and which one is serving your device at that moment. Tick the nodes you want and save. It applies on the next connection from that device, a session already running keeps the node it was given.
Premium
Selects among the premium nodes, and may also select the free node. Default: a random premium node on each connection.
Custom
Selects among your own isolated nodes, and may also select premium or free nodes. Default: your own dedicated node only.
Free
Uses the shared free pool. Access runs downward only: a free device can never reach a paid node.
When your infrastructure is the target
Power generation and distribution, water systems, rail and air transport, hospital networks, financial market infrastructure, telecommunications carriers, seaports and government regulatory bodies have all been documented targets of sustained, methodical cyber operations. These are not theoretical scenarios. They succeed most reliably against systems that were not built with operational security as a design requirement, and the organizations affected typically recognize the exposure only after an incident has occurred.
Dedicated, isolated infrastructure
A single-tenant VPS is assigned to your organization, with no other Kodachi customer traffic on it, your own exit IP, and resources not pooled with other customers. The underlying server and network are still operated by the selected infrastructure provider. Minimum 5 devices, maximum 100, annual license.
Choice of exit country and provider
On the Custom tier you select the exit country and infrastructure provider, aligning network egress with your operational needs and jurisdictional constraints. The VPS is not shared with other Kodachi customers, but the selected hosting company remains the underlying third-party provider.
Custom builds for your organization
Your tooling and configuration, delivered as a cryptographically signed and deployable Kodachi ISO. Specific tools, pre-installed workflows, or configuration hardening beyond the default stack can be produced for you. Available by arrangement.
Hardened by default, independent by design
Developed independently since 2013. Air-gap installation with no network dependency at deployment, and Monero accepted for a more privacy-preserving payment rail. One native desktop dashboard, backed by signed Rust binaries, controls VPN, Tor, DNS, encryption, identity and 122 pre-bundled workflows.
Need a custom build or a private VPS? Here is the whole process.
Tell me what you need and I will study the requirement, confirm what is feasible within Kodachi's security model, and send you a fixed price quote before any work begins. Builds are produced for lawful, defensive, educational and privacy-protection purposes.
Tell me your requirements
Applications, languages, persistence behavior, installer policy, VPS countries and providers, and any hardening. A short, non-sensitive outline is enough to start.
I study scope
I confirm what fits Kodachi's security model and estimate effort, timeline and delivery format.
You get a fixed quote
Transparent, per-project pricing based on scope, before any work begins. Custom builds and private VPS are quoted individually.
Build, sign, deliver
Your master ISO and any provisioned VPS, plus the support arrangement we agree on.
Not buying, but want the free tier to survive?
Donations sustain the free personal-use tier and the shared VPS infrastructure, keeping Kodachi accessible while covering ongoing development and operational costs.
Direct cryptocurrency donations
Third-party payment services
NOWPayments
Multiple cryptocurrencies
PayPal Direct
Quick one-time payment
Donorbox
Recurring payment option
The small print, kept small
Nothing is removed, it is folded so the page can be read in a minute.
About this support model
- Same hardened core: all tiers run the same purpose-hardened OS and security stack.
- Automatic unlock: enter a key once, the license service returns a short-lived signed claim bound to this device, the dashboard verifies it on every start. A missing, expired, altered, wrong-device or unknown-key claim falls back to Free.
- Transition period: product gating is observe-only through 2026-10-16. Enforcement requires a later reviewed, signed release, and does not switch on remotely.
- Security boundary: paid managed-node and custom-server access is always checked by Kodachi servers. The signed local claim supports up to seven days offline, but no desktop app can be made unpatchable by someone with root control of the machine.
- Global commitment: continuous updates, best-effort VPS availability, infrastructure maintenance. No SLA or uptime guarantees.
- Covers major versions: your annual license includes every update for 12 months, including any new major version released during your term, at no extra cost.
- Custom rollout: Custom orders go live immediately on premium low-density nodes, then route through your own dedicated nodes once provisioned.
- Honoring earlier purchases: on 2026-06-21 Kodachi moved from per-major-version licensing to annual 12-month licenses. Everyone who purchased before that date received a fresh 12-month term starting 2026-06-21.
Privacy-first purchasing
License reuse and device transfer
sudo online-auth license-status, sudo online-auth release-license, printf '%s\n' "YOUR-KEY" | sudo online-auth activate-license --stdin-key